Gangs are a problem in South Lake Tahoe

South Lake Tahoe may be a small city of around 23,000 residents but it isn't immune to the big city problems of gangs.

Our mountain hamlet has white gangs, a black gang, hispanic gangs, motorcycle gangs and even white supremacists and sometimes they cross racial lines in order to beef up numbers. The gang names won't be mentioned in this article because of the advertising value it would give them as they try and recruit children and new members.

Last week's arrest of three gang members for a home invasion robbery brought the comment to the forefront..."Tahoe has gangs?"

South Lake Tahoe Police Detective Nick Carlquist leads the city's Gang Unit which is comprised of patrol officers dedicated to removing the threat of gangs from the city. He says there are 250-300 validated gang members and associates in the city. This is an abnormally high number for a town of our size and when asked why so high, Carlquist said its because of the large number of transient influence from Sacramento, Reno and Carson City.

With gangs come violence, burglaries, robberies, drug trafficking and prostitution. Carlquist sees violence as the number one problem gangs bring to our community. Due to the limited turf a gang can claim in South Lake Tahoe they resort to hostile takeovers in order to grow and this is where violence comes into play.

"This is the one reason it is so important for people to report graffiti because that is often the only warning sign we get before violence hits the streets as gangs try to expand," said Carlquist. Secret Witness is a great tool for reporting suspected activity.

If a fight escalates past the graffiti stage there are usually stabbings and larger gang fights. After that point, "associates" of the gangs from towns like Stockton and Sacramento come to assist and a shooting may occur. This is what happened awhile back with shootings on Sussex Avenue and Bonanza Street.

Most gang members are teens through young adults in their twenties though they start recruiting kids as young as 4th and 5th grade. Those kids move up to more of a leadership role when they get to high school.

Getting Rid of Gangs

It is very possible to get the gangs out of South Lake Tahoe and many small communities have been successful in doing so. According to Carlquist, knowledge is power. He said that in order for gangs to stay away from Tahoe, we need to make Tahoe a less gang-friendly locale.

"To become less gang-friendly would include reporting crimes when they happen, being willing to cooperate with law enforcement, keeping the city well lit and free of graffiti, spreading the word about gangs and reinforcing a no-tolerance attitude," said Carlquist. "I’ve had a lot of luck working with the school district and the partnership has been very successful. Unfortunately, citizens on juries and in other areas of the town don’t always have the education and exposure that we do in law enforcement. Gang members have walked away from felony convictions because citizens don’t wish to openly admit there is a gang problem in Tahoe. The first step is to be brave enough to not ignore the problem – this is how other similar towns have sent the message to gangs that their actions will not be tolerated. Unfortunately, too many gang members have walked away with a mere slap on the hand."

The first step, as mentioned above, is to report graffiti as soon as you see it. There is a volunteer crew that will go out right away and paint over the vandalism.

Perhaps the power would even be taken away from the gangs if we stopped calling them a gang and started with words that wouldn't have such a tough guy connotation, like clique or squad.